A close and dear friend whom I recently added on Facebook pointed out that I have over 620 “friends” there. I have no idea how that happened, and come to think of it, most of those people have no business looking at my photos. “I need to do some spring cleaning,” I said. This weekend, as soon as I find the time, I will sit down and purge my friend list.

“This weekend, as soon as I find the time.” Sigh. I know, already, that this will go the way my spring cleaning projects always go. It will never get done. It got me wondering, though, where does this tradition come from?

I grew up in Guatemala, where the annual ritualistic cleansing of the house takes place on December 7th, the eve of the Roman Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception. Families are supposed to gather at sundown to burn any junk, or “bad things” accumulated during the year. This tradition, called the “burning of the devil,” dates back to colonial times and is meant to clear the way for the celebration of Mary’s life. My family never really burned unwanted belongings (though I do recall watching with glee once, in elementary school, as my Spanish verb conjugation workbook flared and turned to ashes). Instead, we would just make a bonfire out of twigs and firewood, and roast marshmallows and hotdogs. My failure to carry out large-scale cleanings, you see, goes back a lifetime.

The American tradition of spring cleaning, as Gregory McNamee explained on this blog a couple of years ago, comes from the days before electricity. People used to shut their houses tight during the winter, and heat them with coal, oil, and wood, leaving furniture, walls, and floors covered in soot. The first days of spring–when the air was warm enough to leave windows open, and insects were not yet a problem–were a good time to take everything out, and clean the house from top to bottom.

Another spring cleaning tradition comes from the Jewish feast of Passover. Observant Jews are required to remove all chametz (leavened products) from their homes in preparation for the holiday. They are required to do a formal search of the house, by candlelight, the night before passover. The chametz is either burned, while reciting a blessing, or–according to this how-to website–sold to non-jews for a nominal fee.

In Iran, the beginning of the spring marks the celebration of Now Ruz, the Persian New Year. Before the celebrations begin, families carry out a ritual called “khooneh takouni,” which literally means “shaking the house.” According to tradition, houses were cleaned because the spirits of the departed visit their family during the first five days of the new year.

I am not sure why any of my dead ancestors would want to come to my 3rd-floor walk-up apartment, but I’m hoping to actually get some cleaning done this year. God knows there’s as much clutter in my closet as there is on my Facebook friend list. If you are as bad about this as I am, try Martha Stewart’s tips, or check out one of these apps.